#chapter seventy-four: wicked little town

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2020 CW promotional poster for Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town

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Favorite Jarchie Moments 101 of ?: the me me me's

Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town

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The Girl Next Door | B. Cooper

Pairing: Betty Cooper x Amelia Andrews (OC)

Warnings: violence, sexual content/themes, substance and drug use,

Genre: mystery; drama

Seasons: 1-7

Season 1: In which Amelia Andres - Archie Andrews' sister - falls in love with the girl next door.

Character Profile; Amelia Andrews

Chapter One | The River's Edge

Chapter Two | A Touch of Evil

Chapter Three | Body Double

Chapter Four | The Last Picture Show

Chapter Five | Heart of Darkness

Chapter Six | Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!

Chapter Seven | In a Lonely Place

Chapter Eight | The Outsiders

Chapter Nine | La Grande Illusion

Chapter Ten | The Lost Weekend

Chapter Eleven | To Riverdale and BAck Again

Chapter Twelve | Anatomy of a Murder

Chapter Thirteen | The Sweet Hereafter

Season 2:

Chapter Fourteen | A Kiss Before Dying

Chapter Fifthteen | Nighthawkes

Chapter Sixteen | The Watcher in the woods

Chapter Seventeen | The Town That dreaded Sundown

Chapter Eighteen | When a Stranger Calls

Chapter Nineteen | Death Proof

Chapter Twenty | Tales from the Darkside

Chapter Twenty-One | House of the Devil

Chapter Twenty-Two | Silent Night, Deadly Night

Chapter Twenty-Three | The Blackboard Jungle

Chapter Twenty-Four | The Wrestler

Chapter Twenty-Five | The Wicked and the Divine

Chapter Twenty-Six | The Tell-Tale Heart

Chapter Twenty-Seven | The Hills Have Eyes

Chapter Twenty-Eight | There Will Be Blood

Chapter Twenty-Nine | Primary Colors

Chapter Thirty | The Noose Tightens

Chapter Thirty-One | A Night to Remember

Chapter Thirty-Two | Prisoners

Chapter Thirty-Three | Shadow of a Doubt

Chapter Thirty-Four | Judgement Night

Chapter Thirty-Five | Brave New World

Season 3:

Chapter Thirty-Six | Labor Day

Chapter Thirty-Seven | Fortune and Men's Eyes

Chapter Thirty-Eight | As Above, So Below

Chapter Thirty-Nine | The Midnight Club

Chapter Forty | The Great Escape

Chapter Forty-One | Manhunter

Chapter Forty-Two | The Man in Black

Chapter Forty-Three | Outbreak

Chapter Forty-Four | No Exity

Chapter Forty-Five | The Stranger

Chapter Forty-Six | The Red Dahlia

Chapter Forty-Seven | Bezarrodale

Chapter Forty-Eight | Requiem for a Welterweight

Chapter Forty-Nine | Fire Walk With Me

Chapter Fifty | American Dreams

Chapter Fifty-One | Big Fun

Chapter Fifty-Two | The Raid

Chapter Fifty-Three | Jawbreaker

Chapter Fifty-Four | Fear The Reaper

Chapter Fifty-Five | Prom Night

Chapter Fifty-Six | The Dark Secret of Harvest House

Chapter Fifty-Seven | Survive The Night

Season 4:

Chapter Fifty-Eight | In Memoriam

Chapter Fifty-Nine | Fast Times at Riverdale High

Chapter Sixty | Dog Day Afternoon

Chapter Sixty-One | Halloween

Chapter Sixty-Two | Witness for the Protection

Chapter Sixty-Three | Hereditary

Chapter Sixty-Four | The Ice Storm

Chapter Sixty-Five | In Treatment

Chapter Sixty-Six | Tangerine

Chapter Sixty-Seven | Varsity Blues

Chapter Sixty-Eight | Quiz Show

Chapter Sixty-Nine | Men of Honor

Chapter Seventy | The Ideas of March

Chapter Seventy-One | How to Get Away with Murder

Chapter Seventy-Two | To Die For

Chapter Seventy-Three | The Locked Room

Chapter Seventy-Four | Wicked Little Town

Chapter Seventy-Five | Lynchian

Chapter Seventy-Six | Killing Mr. Honey

Season 5:

Chapter Seventy-Seven | Climax

Chapter Seventy-Eight | The Preppy Murders

Chapter Seventy-Nine | Graduation

Chapter Eighty | Purgatorio

Chapter Eighty-One | The Homecoming

Chapter Eighty-Two | Back to School

Chapter Eighty-Three | Fire in the Sky

Chapter Eighty-Four | Lock & Key

Chapter Eighty-Five | Destroyer

Chapter Eighty-Six | The Pincushion Man

Chapter Eighty-Seven | Strange Bedfellows

Chapter Eighty-Eight | Citizen Lodge

Chapter Eighty-Nine | Reservoir Dogs

Chapter Ninety | The Night Gallery

Chapter Ninety-One | The Return of the Pussycats

Chapter Ninety-Two | Band of Brothers

Chapter Ninety-Three | Dance of Death

Chapter Ninety-Four | Next to Normal

Chapter Ninety-Five | Riverdale RIP(?)

Season 6:

Chapter Ninety-Six | Welcome To Riverdale

Chapter Ninety-Seven | Ghost Stories

Chapter Ninety-Eight | Mr. Cypher

Chapter Ninety-Nine | The Witching Hour(s)

Chapter One Hundred | The Jughead Paradox

Chapter One Hundred and One | Unbelievable

Chapter One Hundred and Two | Death at a Funeral

Chapter One Hundred and Three | The Town

Chapter One Hundred and Four | The Surpent Queen's Gambit

Chapter One Hundred and Five | Folk Heroes

Chapter One hundred and Six | Angels in America

Chapter One Hundred and Seven | In The Fog

Chapter One Hundred and Eight | Ex-Libris

Chapter One Hundred and Nine | Venomous

Chapter One Hundred and Ten | Things That Go Bump in the Night

Chapter One Hundred and Eleven | Blue Collar

Chapter One Hundred and Twelve | American Pyschos

Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen | Biblical

Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen | The Witches of Riverdale

Chapter One Hundred and Fifthteen | Return to Riverdale

Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen | The Stand

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen | Night of the Comet

Season 7:

Chapter Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen | Don't Worry, Darling

Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen | Skip, Hop, and Thump!

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty | Sex Education

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One | Love & Marriage

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two | Tales in a Jugular Vein

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Three | Peep Show

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Four | Dirty Dancing

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five | Hoop Dreams

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six | Betty & Veronica Double Digest

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven | American Graffiti

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Eight | Halloween II

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Nine | After the Fall

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty | The Crucible

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-One | Archie The Musical

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Two | Miss Teen Riverdale

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Three | Stag

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four | A Different Kind of Cat

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Five | For a Better Tomorrow

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Six | The Golden Age of Television

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven | Goodbye, Riverdale

[queerstuffonscreen]

Riverdale (2017-2023) [I]

Episode length: 41-50 min.

Country: USA

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Language: English

Set in the present, the series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends, exploring the surreality of small-town life, the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade.

Season 1

Episode 1: Chapter 1: The River's Edge

Episode 2: Chapter Two: A Touch of Evil

Episode 3: Chapter Three: Body Double

Episode 4: Chapter Four: The Last Picture Show

Episode 5: Chapter Five: Heart of Darkness

Episode 6: Chapter Six: Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!

Episode 7: Chapter Seven: In a Lonely Place

Episode 8: Chapter Eight: The Outsiders

Episode 9: Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion

Episode 10: Chapter Ten: The Lost Weekend

Episode 11: Chapter Eleven: To Riverdale and Back Again

Episode 12: Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder

Episode 13: Chapter Thirteen: The Sweet Hereafter

Season 2

Episode 1: Chapter Fourteen: A Kiss Before Dying

Episode 2: Chapter Fifteen: Nighthawks

Episode 3: Chapter Sixteen: The Watcher in the Woods

Episode 4: Chapter Seventeen: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Episode 5: Chapter Eighteen: When a Stranger Calls

Episode 6: Chapter Nineteen: Death Proof

Episode 7: Chapter Twenty: Tales from the Darkside

Episode 8: Chapter Twenty-One: House of the Devil

Episode 9: Chapter Twenty-Two: Silent Night, Deadly Night

Episode 10: Chapter Twenty-Three: The Blackboard Jungle

Episode 11: Chapter Twenty-Four: The Wrestler

Episode 12: Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine

Episode 13: Chapter Twenty-Six: The Tell-Tale Heart

Episode 14: Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Hills Have Eyes

Episode 15: Chapter Twenty-Eight: There Will Be Blood

Episode 16: Chapter Twenty-Nine: Primary Colors

Episode 17: Chapter Thirty: The Noose Tightens

Episode 18: Chapter Thirty-One: A Night to Remember

Episode 19: Chapter Thirty-Two: Prisoners

Episode 20: Chapter Thirty-Three: Shadow of a Doubt

Episode 21: Chapter Thirty-Four: Judgment Night

Episode 22: Chapter Thirty-Five: Brave New World

Season 3

Episode 1: Chapter Thirty-Six: Labor Day

Episode 2: Chapter Thirty-Seven: Fortune and Men's Eyes

Episode 3: Chapter Thirty-Eight: As Above, So Below

Episode 4: Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Midnight Club

Episode 5: Chapter Forty: The Great Escape

Episode 6: Chapter Forty-One: Manhunter

Episode 7: Chapter Forty-Two: The Man in Black

Episode 8: Chapter Forty-Three: Outbreak

Episode 9: Chapter Forty-Four: No Exit

Episode 10: Chapter Forty-Five: The Stranger

Episode 11: Chapter Forty-Six: The Red Dahlia

Episode 12: Chapter Forty-Seven: Bizarrodale

Episode 13: Chapter Forty-Eight: Requiem for a Welterweight

Episode 14: Chapter Forty-Nine: Fire Walk with Me

Episode 15: Chapter Fifty: American Dreams

Episode 16: Chapter Fifty-One: Big Fun

Episode 17: Chapter Fifty-Two: The Raid

Episode 18: Chapter Fifty-Three: Jawbreaker

Episode 19: Chapter Fifty-Four: Fear the Reaper

Episode 20: Chapter Fifty-Five: Prom Night

Episode 21: Chapter Fifty-Six: The Dark Secret of Harvest House

Episode 22: Chapter Fifty-Seven: Survive the Night

Season 4

Episode 1: Chapter Fifty-Eight: In Memoriam

Episode 2: Chapter Fifty-Nine: Fast Times at Riverdale High

Episode 3: Chapter Sixty: Dog Day Afternoon

Episode 4: Chapter Sixty-One: Halloween

Episode 5: Chapter Sixty-Two: Witness for the Prosecution

Episode 6: Chapter Sixty-Three: Hereditary

Episode 7: Chapter Sixty-Four: The Ice Storm

Episode 8: Chapter Sixty-Five: In Treatment

Episode 9: Chapter Sixty-Six: Tangerine

Episode 10: Chapter Sixty-Seven: Varsity Blues

Episode 11: Chapter Sixty-Eight: Quiz Show

Episode 12: Chapter Sixty-Nine: Men of Honor

Episode 13: Chapter Seventy: The Ides of March

Episode 14: Chapter Seventy-One: How to Get Away with Murder

Episode 15: Chapter Seventy-Two: To Die For

Episode 16: Chapter Seventy-Three: The Locked Room

Episode 17: Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town

Episode 18: Chapter Seventy-Five: Lynchian

Episode 19: Chapter Seventy-Six: Killing Mr. Honey

Season 5

Episode 1: Chapter Seventy-Seven: Climax

Episode 2: Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Preppy Murders

Episode 3: Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation

Episode 4: Chapter Eighty: Purgatorio

Episode 5: Chapter Eighty-One: The Homecoming

Episode 6: Chapter Eighty-Two: Back to School

Episode 7: Chapter Eighty-Three: Fire in the Sky

Episode 8: Chapter Eighty-Four: Lock & Key

Episode 9: Chapter Eighty-Five: Destroyer

Episode 10: Chapter Eighty-Six: The Pincushion Man

Episode 11: Chapter Eighty-Seven: Strange Bedfellows

Episode 12: Chapter Eighty-Eight: Citizen Lodge

Episode 13: Chapter Eighty-Nine: Reservoir Dogs

Episode 14: Chapter Ninety: The Night Gallery

Episode 15: Chapter Ninety-One: The Return of the Pussycats

Episode 16: Chapter Ninety-Two: Band of Brothers

Episode 17: Chapter Ninety-Three: Dance of Death

Episode 18: Chapter Ninety-Four: Next to Normal

Episode 19: Chapter Ninety-Five: Riverdale: RIP (?)

Watch on Netflix

See the Riverdale post II post for season 6-7.

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Cami talks about Wicked Little Town, without any spoilers (we now know)

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Barchie hive is thriving tonight!

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RIVERDALELADIESDAILY’S ADVENT CALENDER DAY TWENTY→ Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town

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SEASON 4, EPISODE 17 Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town

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TONI TOPAZ Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town

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KEVIN KELLER in Riverdale, Chapter Seventy Four: Wicked Little Town.

[kabira]

01 | first period biology

pairing — spider-man!vernon x ofc

word count — 3k

genres — spider-man au, marvel au, fluff, action, angst, humor

warnings — violence, mentions of school tests

summary — vernon doesn’t entertain bad guys on monday mornings, but the villain of the day apparently didn’t seem to have gotten the memo.

note — first chapter woohoo! in celebration of comeback day, i present to you: my first actual tumblr multi-part series. send me an ask or dm if you want to be in the taglist! masterlist coming soon <3

go to fic masterlist | main masterlist

I do not have time for this.

Vernon swung through the air, landing nimbly on the road just a few feet behind the newest menace that had decided to grace his neighborhood with its presence. The self-proclaimed Rhino—basically a guy in a rhinoceros suit, as the name suggested—was tearing down 108th street at breakneck speed, which was almost as fast as Vernon mid-swing. Almost.

“Hey, slow down!” he called as he launched himself towards the suited man, and a little kid with a lollipop gaped as Spider-Man swung right towards the Rhino, legs stretched straight before him. “Tsk, how are we supposed to tango if I can’t even keep up?”

Rhino roared when Vernon dropkicked him right in the middle of his back, but the kick didn’t put him out of commission like Vernon had hoped it would. The villain (and Vernon used the term loosely) swung his fist towards him, but he flipped backwards, landing on top of a car, which dented under the force.

“Why is it always Queens?” Vernon asked, annoyed, as Rhino charged towards him. He pushed off the car to avoid Rhino, who crashed headfirst into the vehicle, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. Right next to it, a yellow Kia’s alarm went off. Vernon, now hanging from the building behind it, huffed. “And why is it always right before school?”

And a Monday, too. Vernon usually allowed for supervillains busting down his metaphorical door on mornings, but Mondays were usually off-limits. Honestly, what kind of villain gets up at seven a.m. on a Monday?

Vernon scaled the brick wall of the building, looking for a high vantage point he could drop down from, but even the little effort seemed to tire him out more than usual. Having studied until late night the day before, right after stopping a third try at a robbery on seventy-third (honestly, do these people never learn?), he had only managed to catch about three hours of sleep. It was normal by Spidey standards, but not by Vernon standards. Especially when he was supposed to have a test in first period biology.

“Spider-Man!” Rhino bellowed from three storeys below, snapping Vernon back to the present. He sighed as man demolished another car, no doubt to show off his might or strength or whatever it was villains loved to show off these days. “Face me!”

Vernon looked down. In the morning, everything was awash with sunlight, including Rhino. The suit was a dark gray but didn’t seem to be made of metal, looking about three to four inches thick like some kind of hide-like body armor, and light glinted off the visor that only half-showed his adversary’s face. If he hadn’t been about to be pummeled to death by the guy in rhinoceros suit, he would have appreciated the beautiful workmanship more. The horn was a nice touch.

“If you just wanted to see me, an email would have been fine!” Vernon called, letting go of the wall and righting himself in free-fall as he hurtled towards the Rhino. “No need to put on a show for little ol’ me—”

Okay. Maybe he had miscalculated the distance or maybe Rhino was less distracted than he thought, because instead of him dropping in on the villain like a ton of bricks, Rhino swung his suited arm, catching Vernon in the chest with bone-shattering force, and sent him flying.

Vernon hit the sidewalk with enough force for his body to skid a few feet before coming to a rest. His backpack (which had somehow not been torn to shreds) absorbed most of the blow, but the impact had knocked the wind out of him, and he lay there for a few seconds, wondering if he should just stay down. His head was already pounding, and a sleepy spider was a grumpy spider.

He changed his mind at the last moment as Rhino’s fist swung towards his face, and he flipped onto his back, jumping out of the way just as the fist came down where he had been lying milliseconds ago. Beneath the mask, Vernon’s eyes widened as he saw the blow break the asphalt.

I really do not have time for this.

“What the heck is that suit even made of?” he muttered as he dodged another blow, trying to work out a way to subdue Rhino as fast as possible. The suit was big and heavy, which usually made for slower reactions, and a good old webbing-down would have been the perfect way to wrap up the show, but if the suit was strong enough, even his web fluid wouldn’t hold. Vernon had to knock him out somehow.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Rhino made a throaty, hacking sound like could have been laughter. “Unfortunately, you will be dead before you can even get close enough.”

“You know, it doesn’t have to be this way,” Vernon said, dodging yet another attack, resulting in Rhino’s head getting stuck in the cracked windshield of a car for a moment. God, that guy was like a battering ram. He couldn’t keep this up forever. “We can always sit down and talk about this.”

“Spider-Man, I’ll kill you!”

“I’ll take that as a no, then.” Vernon raised his wrists, aiming at the car. Thwip-thwip, went the fluid from his web shooters, trapping the Rhino against the side of the vehicle. “Shame,” he said, as the man thrashed against his web restraints. “I know a really good taco place around here.”

The Rhino yelled, lifting the entire car bodily. Vernon watched as he raised the car over his head, the webbing breaking from the strain of the suit against them, and threw it directly at him.

Ah, crap.

Vernon would like to think he would have managed to get away from there in time even if someone hadn’t snatched him up into the air, but he doubted it. There was something majestic about watching a villain he’d underestimated lift a whole car up to throw at him.

The person caught him under the arms and lifted him into the air, away from the enraged roar of the Rhino that resounded throughout the street. Vernon’s first reaction to being picked cleanly off the road would be fear, but his spider sense hadn’t gone off yet. He tried to look up at his captor/savior, but the back of his head collided with something hard. “Ow,” he mumbled. “Who the hell are you?”

“The guy who just saved your ass, webhead,” the boy replied derisively. Or at least it sounded like a boy, very much like those guys in the cafeteria who used to drop snide remarks behind Vernon’s back pre-spider bite. The guy dropped him on the roof of a shorter building, and Vernon rolled out of the way, getting to his feet. The boy was dressed in a metallic-looking dark blue-and-gold suit, a bucket-like helmet over his head. The lower of his face was uncovered, exposing lips twisted into a scowl. “I’m not even getting a thank-you?”

“…thanks,” Vernon muttered after scrutinizing the guy for a moment. “Uh, who are you actually?”

“I’m Nova, creep.”

“Nova Creep.” He considered this. “Interesting.”

“Just Nova!” the boy snapped, sounding even more displeased than before. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my team and save the frickin’ neighborhood.”

Saying this, he turned and took off again, no doubt heading for wherever the action was. Vernon watched him go, choosing to take a breather instead of following him back down.

New superheroes in town? It wasn’t unheard of, and Vernon had had his fair share of newbies and oldies both to deal with in his year-long career as Queens’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

He looked down over the edge of the roof. Sure enough, there were three of them—a girl in a white suit, moving around the wreckage like an acrobat and slashing at the Rhino’s suit, Nova Creep shooting fist lasers (Flight powers and fist lasers? Unfair.) at him, and—was that Iceman?

Vernon hesitated. He could join the fight and help finish it more quickly, but if Iceman was here, the X-Men couldn’t be farther away. He could leave the three to it and get to school in time to catch forty winks before class, no harm done. Was he even needed?

Unfortunately, he knew he was only giving himself the illusion of choice. Spider-Man never walked away from a fight, even if someone more capable was dealing with it.

He shot webs at the metal post hanging out from the opposing building and swung back down, joining the fight just as Rhino caught the girl around the middle like he had Vernon, sending her flying back into an already wrecked car. Vernon cushioned her landing with webs, managing to protect her body from the broken metal chassis, and she was back on her feet in seconds, joining his side.

“Thanks,” she said, which surprised him. Most superheroes didn’t take the time out to thank him, but that was usually unnecessary, since they evened out the score by saving his life. “You know this guy?”

“Nah, he’s new in town,” he replied, watching Nova and Iceman fight the Rhino. Iceman froze him from the legs to his waist, but it didn’t hold for long before Rhino broke through the ice. “Strong, though, I’ll give him that.”

“It’s the suit,” the girl told him. Now that they were up close, Vernon could see that her costume somewhat resembled a white tiger, with the pointed ears and yellow eyes. He wondered if she’d been bitten by a radioactive white tiger. “It’s made of some kind of polymer.”

“Polymer?” he echoed, even more surprised. He’d assumed metal.

“Self-regenerating,” she affirmed. “It’s not indestructible—I slashed through the hide with my claws, but—”

“Your claws?”

She raised her hand. Under the white glove, her nails extended into wicked, claw-like tips. “Cool,” he said, voice cracking halfway through the word. He cleared his throat. “Very Woverine-ish.”

“He’s a mutant,” she said dismissively. What was he supposed to call her? Tigerwoman? Tigergirl? “Rhino’s suit regenerates. We have to knock him out.”

“Yeah, I figured that one out,” Vernon muttered.

“A little help here?!” Nova yelled, zipping through the air in a zigzag manner to avoid the Rhino’s hits. “Or are you two going to stand around and chat all day?”

Vernon’s lips twitched into an unintentional smile. “I’ll web him up,” he told tiger lady. “You think Nova can pull him up?”

Tiger inclined her head. “Not on his own, but with a little frosty boost…”

“Great.” He sprinted towards the group, shooting webs at the Rhino’s head to get his attention and distract him from the others. “Hey, Hippo! Over here!”

The Rhino ripped off the webbing from his visor, not wasting a moment before charging him. Vernon lunged, wrapping the Rhino suit up in webs as he scaled the wall, trapping him in the web fluid. It wouldn’t hold for long, he knew—but he only needed a few seconds. And some blind faith.

The excessive webbing wrapped around Rhino like a net trap, and Vernon pulled, lifting him into the air with as much strength as he could muster. Below him, Iceman froze a column of ice under the Rhino’s butt, giving him a little extra height. Ten feet…twenty feet…

“Tiger!” Vernon yelled.

She lunged, pushing off the hood of a dented car to give her extra height, and ripped through the thin web holding him up with her claws. Rhino plummeted to the ground, crashing into a car and through it, the fall only broken by the ground, the asphalt cracking beneath the force.

Vernon watched him anxiously. The suit should have been heavy enough to render the man inside unconscious, unless he had a really good cushioning system in place.

He counted to ten in his head. Rhino didn’t move.

Thank god for bad cushioning, Vernon thought, swinging back down to the ground. “You guys think you could carry him?” he asked the three. Iceman didn’t even look over, broodily watching the unconscious villain’s body. Oh well. “He’s a heavy hitter.”

“We could make it back to S.H.I.E.L.D. with him,” Tiger said. Then she glanced at him, cocking her head in a perplexed manner. “Wait, why do you—”

“I gotta run.” He shrugged sheepishly, adjusting the straps of his bag, which had only undergone minimal damage. The wonders never ceased. “You see, I’m late to first period biology.”

Vernon crashed through the doors of his school so fast he almost ploughed down Joshua, who had been standing just before the entrance, probably waiting for him.

The journey hadn’t taken more than a few minutes—he tried not to change clothes in suspicious-smelling service alleys as much as possible, but some situations left him no choice—but he only had a few minutes to get to class, and detention was something he couldn’t afford to get. He hated disappointing Aunt May more than he hated getting his ass beat by some B-list villain.

“Hey, hey, hey, relax,” Joshua said, righting him. The hallways were almost empty, but not quite, indicating that he wasn’t too late to the not-party. The boy fixed his glasses, giving Vernon a look. “Did you get into a fight?”

Vernon blinked at him. “What? No. This guy called Rhino—”

“Shh.” Joshua dragged him to one side, away from earshot of the general populace of Midtown High, and gave him a concerned look. “Dude, your face is bleeding.”

Joshua was one of the only few individuals in the world who knew about Vernon’s identity as Spider-Man, which was just as well, because if it hadn’t been for his blue-haired best friend he would have walked into a test with his nose gushing like a bloody geyser. “Thanks,” he mumbled, when Joshua handed him a clean-looking handkerchief. He raised it to his face. “Did you wipe your nose on this?”

Joshua made a face. “Not that I remember.”

“Good enough.” He cleaned off the blood as well as he could, which was hard, because he was feeling jittery and apparently his hands agreed. “Do I look fine?”

“You never look fine, my friend,” his friend said sagely. “But you look like you always do, so I guess, yes.”

Vernon shot him a grim smile, and started down the corridor towards 12-B, which was where he was supposed to be in ten minutes. He wasn’t even late, actually, but Mr. Malkin didn’t need a big excuse to give someone a C+ for a tardy warning. Joshua followed close behind. “So, which guy beat you up this time?”

“I didn’t get beat up.” Vernon rolled his eyes. “Well, not entirely—”

“Vernon Parker, report to room 10-A.” Both the boys’ heads whipped up towards the source of the sound, which came as an announcement from the speakers. “Vernon Parker, room 10-A, please.”

“What?” Vernon whirled on Joshua, panicked. The blue-haired boy’s eyes were wide behind his glasses, but he only shrugged in response. “But the test!”

He tried to think back to anything wrong he might have done in the past few weeks to get called aside like this, but he couldn’t think of anything. Plus, he hadn’t been summoned to the principal’s office, which confused him even more. Why room 10-A?

“Now you’ve had it, Parker,” Flash Thompson said as he passed them, grinning.

Vernon scowled at his retreating back, his grip tightening around the bag strap. “Whatever,” he muttered, then threw Joshua his bag. “Take it to the class, won’t you? I’ll try to get back as soon as I can.”

Without waiting for affirmation, he jogged off to find room 10-A, wanting to get whatever it was over with so he would get back on time. When he got there, the room was empty except for a lady in a pencil skirt and jacket, holding a clipboard in her hand. Upon his entry, she smiled at him in a friendly way, which only served to tick him off further.

“Whatever this is, couldn’t I do it some other time?” he pleaded. He hadn’t seen this staff member before, but he didn’t seem to be in trouble, and his grades had enough pull to get him out of some random appointment before classes. “I have a test in like, five minutes.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve already talked to your teacher about this,” the woman said, continuing to smile. She gestured to one of the seats. “Take a seat.”

Reluctantly, he obliged, not really having an excuse not to now. “What is this, exactly?” he asked. Now that panic had taken a backseat, doubt was beginning to creep in. Why only him? And how had he never seen this woman before?

“In light of recent events, the school has decided to start counselling sessions for all of the students to help them cope,” she said. She had a really nice smile, her skin tan and unblemished, cheeks dimpled. “I’m Melia Fox,” she said. “I just need to ask you a few questions, and you can be on your way.”

He stared back at her, miffed. A year of incidents, and they suddenly decided to have counselling sessions now? “Why just me?” he asked slowly. “I’m sorry, but isn’t there some kind of rule or protocol for—”

“There is,” said a new voice. Vernon whipped around, and there at the end of the classroom, where moments ago had been nothing but air, stood a tall black man with an eyepatch. “And Agent Fox is following it.”

Vernon gaped. “I—what?”

“Spider-Man,” Nicky Fury said, with a note of muted resolution in his voice, “we need to have a little chat.”

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Chery Blossom in Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town

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favorite veronica lodge looks

4x17 - “chapter seventy-four: wicked little town”